Game sense is your ability to take in and process all the information you have to make the best decision.

You can think of your game sense as your game IQ.

Having good game sense enables you to beat players that are more mechanically skilled than you because you can outsmart and outplay them.

For example, Wayne Gretzky is considered the greatest hockey player ever and even has the nickname “The Great One”. But in his own words, he wasn’t the most talented, fastest, or strongest player.

So what made Wayne Gretzky so great?

He knew where he had to be positioned. He would “skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been”. In other words, Wayne Gretzky had great game sense for hockey.

You can think of game sense as the opposite of your mechanical skills. Where your mechanical skills are the things you do in Fortnite, for example, building, editing, and aiming.

Or, like the concept of Ying and Yang, they are complementary to one another. And you need both good game sense and good mechanics to be a great Fortnite player.

As you know, it’s fairly straightforward to improve your mechanical skills.

To improve your building mechanics you can jump into a Creative map and start cranking out builds, high-ground retakes, edits, and so on. And to improve your aiming mechanics you can grind aim trainers like Kovaak’s or aim maps in Fortnite Creative.

But improving your game sense isn’t so simple.

In fact, game sense may be one of the most difficult things to learn and develop in all of Fortnite.

I’m here to help you.

In this post, you’re going to find actionable tips to help you improve your game sense in Fortnite so you can become a better player and win more games.

Game sense tip #1: Watch the best Fortnite players

If you wanted to get better at hockey, do you think it would be a good idea to watch Wayne Gretzky play and practice?

You bet it would.

Imagine you could watch as he practices, listen to his thought process, and analyze his every movement so you could learn from the very best.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to do this for Wayne Gretzky, or really any sportspeople for that matter.

But we do for games like Fortnite.

You see, there is literally an infinite stream of content from the best Fortnite players that you can watch for free online now and this is one of the most powerful ways to develop your game sense.

Because when you watch a Fortnite streamer you’re able to see exactly what they’re doing and listen to their thought processes. And if you don’t catch your favorite player live, you can watch their replays on Twitch or YouTube uploads.

But if you want to develop your game sense, you can’t just sit there and watch passively. No, you must be alert and really pay attention.

You must watch closely and pay attention to see exactly what they’re doing and the decisions they make. Ask yourself questions as you watch like why did they do that in a particular situation?

The great thing about watching Fortnite streams or YouTube videos is that you can pause the video and go back and watch it again in slow motion to find out exactly what’s happening.

You can take clips of your favorite moments and highlights and save them onto your computer for you to continually refer back to and learn from.

As you watch and learn from the best Fortnite players in this way you will begin to feel yourself become apart of their gameplay.

You’ll begin to model them and the decisions they make when you play Fortnite so you can take your game sense to the next level.

Game sense tip #2: Review your own gameplay

I’ve talked before about the importance of VOD reviews and how it’s one of the things that Fortnite pro players are doing that makes them so good.

And reviewing your VODs is a highly effective way to improve your game sense. Why?

Because you can literally go back in time and watch your gameplay to find out exactly what you’re doing wrong.

When you watch your Fortnite gameplay back, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll spot flaws and weak points in your game. You’re making more mistakes than you think and every mistake you make is an opportunity to learn and improve.

But you’re only going to learn and improve if you actually take the time and effort to review your VODs. Again, you can’t just sit there passively and watch your replays, you must be actively looking for things to improve at.

The awesome thing about Fortnite is that it’s super easy to watch your replays back thanks to the built-in replay system. So you have no excuses not to review your gameplay.

Of course, you can record your gameplay using software like OBS to review, and that’s fine.

But I really like the Fortnite replay system for doing gameplay reviews for a couple of reasons. For example, you can change the camera view to give you a whole new perspective of the fight and this can be valuable to you.

And the replay system has an amazing secret feature that not many players know about or use that can help you to further develop your game sense skills.

You see, when you watch your gameplay using the replay system in Fortnite you can actually watch things from the perspective of your opponent.

So you can see how a fight unfolds from the eyes of your opponent. And this will allow you to see exactly how you’re positioning in fights and what you were doing wrong.

For example, you may have thought you were using the third-person perspective in Fortnite properly and taking advantage of a right-hand peak. But when you watch the gameplay back from your opponent’s perspective, you were actually showing more of your body than you thought.

This is an incredible tool for becoming a better Fortnite player and improving your game sense, so don’t skip it.

Game sense tip #3: Learn more about Fortnite

Game sense isn’t exactly how much you know about Fortnite.

But your game sense is certainly limited by your knowledge of the game.

Learning more about Fortnite is going to increase your capacity for making good decisions and improve your game sense.

Remember how at the start we said that game sense is like your game IQ? Well, learning more about Fortnite is how you can increase your game IQ because the more you know the better you will play.

For example, if you don’t know that builds have less health when they are reset, then you won’t know that you can break a wall with a single shot from your weapon and make the right play when in a box fight.

Or if you don’t know which shotgun is best when given a particular option, then you could end up choosing a sub-optimal loadout and lose the game as a result.

Or if you don’t know you can drop a port-a-fortress to save yourself when falling from a great height by landing on the tires then you’re just going to die from fall damage.

As you know, game sense is your awareness of the game and the ability to make excellent decisions. But if you don’t know that you can do something, how are you supposed to do it?

Now, how do you increase your knowledge of Fortnite?

You have a few options.

Hopefully, you’re already watching the best Fortnite players from the first tip in this post, because that’s a valuable way to learn more.

But the best way to increase your Fortnite knowledge, in my opinion, is to watch YouTube videos from people that specifically create educational content for Fortnite.

There are a bunch of great educational Fortnite creators and here are a few to get you started:

• ItsJerian
• Billy Bicep
• Ballatw
• ImSpeedyGonzalez

Of course, this is the best Fortnite YouTube channel.

The reason I think YouTube videos are so good to learn from is they stimulate your visual and auditory senses. So as you listen to explanations with the visual content to back it up, you’re going to learn even faster.

You can also read guides about Fortnite. Reading is an excellent way to learn because you can generally read information faster than you can listen to it.

But, unfortunately, there aren’t as many good Fortnite blogs as there are good YouTube channels. Except this one, of course.

The Fortnite competitive subreddit and the Fortnite Battle Royale University subreddit can sometimes have useful gems of information, so it’s worth visiting those to learn more about the game, too.

But watching videos and reading guides won’t do anything for you unless you follow this next tip.

Game sense tip #4: Write down what you’ve learned in your own words

So far you’ve learned that you can improve your Fortnite game sense by watching the best players, analyzing your own gameplay, and learning from people that know more than you.

But the most important thing that you must do is write down the things that you learn in your own words. Because when you go through the physical act of writing things down, you will solidify those words in your memory.

Writing things down will also help you to process your thoughts and they will become more focused and clear. William James, the great American psychologist, once remarked that he did not know what he thought until he had written his thoughts down.

Listen, anyone can watch a helpful video or read a useful post and think “wow that was really good, I’m definitely going to use that some time”. But when it actually comes down to apply what you’ve learned you don’t because you don’t remember it.

Until you write things down you’re unlikely to remember it. This is why we’re taught to write so much in schools.

But I don’t recommend that you take notes while you’re listening along to a video or reading a post. Because if you take notes then you’re not fully listening or paying attention to the content. And you’re probably just going to copy exactly what is said anyway, and then you’re not really learning.

Instead, you want to wait until you’ve got until the end of the video or a post, and then write down what you’ve learned in your own words.

But if there’s something particularly noteworthy in the content that you are reviewing, then you absolutely can and should pause to take a note of it. You can keep a journal containing all of your notes near to you so that you can regularly review it.

Of course, as well as writing things down, you also have to actually apply it in a game. This is an important step in your learning process.

Something else you can do is speak out loud as you play. Keep a running monologue of your thought process, as if you’re having a dialogue with yourself.

This will take you out of auto-pilot mode so you’re actually engaged in what you’re doing, and it can give you some interesting insights into how you think and process things.

I know it may seem a bit weird, but give it a try.

Game sense tip #5: Play different games

I know it sounds counterintuitive and maybe even silly.

But you really can learn a lot about Fortnite by playing different games.

How do you think that certain players are already good at a game, even on their first try?

Of course, they haven’t even played the game long enough to develop the mechanics or game sense for the game. They just know what to do.

You see, when you play and learn about other games you will increase your overall game IQ because every game teaches you something new, and this will translate over to Fortnite.

Obviously, it helps to play games that have mechanics or gameplay similar to Fortnite. For example, you could play another battle royale game to increase your battle royale IQ. Or you could play shooters like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Overwatch to improve your aiming mechanics.

Heck, you could even play something completely different like a MOBA such as League of Legends. Because this will really activate your brain and force you into learning mode, which can be beneficial.

Look, if you’ve been playing Fortnite for a long time without a break then this can be unproductive and result in burnout.

As you take a break from Fortnite to play new games you’ll give your brain the opportunity to subconsciously process all the things that you’ve been learning, so you can improve when you’re not even playing.

I think you’ll be surprised at how much better you can get when you do something as simple as taking a break and play something new.

Conclusion

You may think that you already have a good understanding of Fortnite. But Fortnite is a surprisingly deep game and there are always new things to learn.

Of course, your game sense skills are going to get better as you continue to play Fortnite, just like your mechanical skills would.

But when you apply the art of deliberate practice and follow the tips in this post, your game sense will develop even faster.

Listen, whatever success you experience in a game of Fortnite is the accumulation of a bunch of small decisions that you made throughout the game.

And your success or failure in a particular game is usually not the result of one terrible event or bad decision, even though it may sometimes look that way.

Rather, your success is determined by all the small decisions that you make in every moment of the game. From the smallest micro-decision to larger decisions.

My hope is that when you apply all the game sense tips that you’ve learned from this post, you’ll find yourself making better decisions in every game, so you can further develop your game sense and meet your full potential.

The post How to Improve Your Fortnite Game Sense appeared first on Kr4m.

It appears at the bottom right of your crosshair in game.

You may find this annoying or distracting and want to remove it.

Here’s how to turn off the ammo reticle indicator in Fortnite as of Chapter 2:

1. Open the Fortnite menu by pressing the escape key on your keyboard or start button on your controller
2. From the dropdown list select Settings
3. Click the Game UI icon, the third one across that looks like a box with a triangle and some lines
4. From the list of options turn Reticle Ammo Indicator off

Previously, you had to be in a game of Fortnite to access these settings. But Epic Games have recently updated it so you can get here even if you’re in the Fortnite menu.

As a quick note, you definitely don’t want to turn off the Reticle setting near the top of the Game UI screen. Because doing this will completely get rid of your crosshair so you don’t know where you’re aiming.

Should you turn the reticle ammo indicator off?

The main advantage of the reticle ammo indicator is that it gives you useful information right in the center of your screen where your eyes are naturally looking.

So the ammo indicator saves you time having to look down at your ammo count way down in the bottom right of your screen next to your inventory and loadout.

Having more information in a fast-paced game like Fortnite is obviously useful. And the amount of ammo you have in your gun is a part of a mental checklist you should be keeping tracking of, especially in hectic endgame situations.

How many times has not having your weapon reloaded stopped you from getting a kill?

In other words, the reticle ammo indicator saves you some of your mental energy having to remember your ammo count because you have it in the middle of your screen. So you can focus on the important parts of the game.

With that being said, I find the reticle ammo indicator distracting and choose to turn it off.

In my opinion, having the ammo indicator so close to my crosshair when I’m aiming takes my attention away from what I’m really trying to focus on.

And I don’t mind having to look down at the ammo count at the bottom of my screen because it’s in my peripheral vision anyway.

I usually reload my gun after firing just one bullet as well.

Conclusion

The reason the reticle ammo indicator was added to the game in the first place was because players were complaining they couldn’t see the ammo count when the HUD was changed at the start of Chapter 2.

So Epic Games are listening to us, even if it’s just the small things. They even gave us the option to turn this setting off if you want to, and you now know how to do that if you want by going into the Game UI settings.

If you find the reticle ammo indicator distracting and that it does more harm than good for you then you should turn it off. But if you think you’re going to get some benefit from it then you can leave it on.

There are other useful settings you can configure in the Game UI settings. For example, you can show your ping in Fortnite and if you have high ping then you will find this guide helpful to lower your ping.

The post How to Turn Off Reticle Ammo Indicator in Fortnite appeared first on Kr4m.

Ping is the latency between your client and the Fortnite server.

So it’s the network delay or lag you experience as you play Fortnite.

For example, imagine you’re trying to build a wall in Fortnite. Your ping will determine how fast that input is sent to the server and back to your screen.

Your ping is measured in milliseconds (ms), which is a thousandth of a second. So a ping of 100 ms is a delay of 0.1 seconds.

You want your ping as low as possible because the lower your ping is, the less time it will take for your game to respond to the server and the less latency you’ll experience.

So your builds will place sooner, your editing will be faster, and aiming at targets will feel more responsive allowing you to hit more shots. In other words, lowering your ping will help to improve your overall gaming experience in Fortnite.

Having a low ping is a competitive advantage, especially when you’re box fighting in Fortnite because you will find it easier to take and replace walls.

It’s actually unfair how good 0 ping is.

You’re able to see your ping in Fortnite by enabling the net debug stats setting. You can check out my guide for how to show your ping in Fortnite here.

Now that you understand what ping is and why it’s important to reduce it, the real question is how do you lower your ping?

In this post, you’ll find useful tips to help you reduce your ping and when you follow every step in this guide you could dramatically lower your ping.

Use a wired connection

Let’s start with the most obvious tip for getting better ping.

Using a wired connection is more stable and more reliable than a wireless connection.

Because you will be experiencing a slower connection due to interference on a wireless connection, your ping will almost always be better on a wired connection.

For example, here are the results of a speed test that I ran on my phone using a wireless connection:

And here are the results that I ran on my computer that’s connected to my router via an Ethernet cable:

Now my mobile results with the wireless connection are very good (I have no idea why the upload speed is actually faster on the wireless test). But I am sitting literally right next to my router, and if I was further away then the results would be worse.

And just by using a wired connection, I was able to reduce my ping by over 40%.

Look, Ethernet cables are cheap and easy to use. You just plug one end into your router and the other end into your PC or console.

Of course, using an Ethernet cable is typically not a problem for PC players. But it can be for console players that are set up further away from the router.

When I was living at home I had the same problem. I was really far away from the router, but I really wanted to use a wired connection because I knew how much it would improve my gaming experience.

The solution? I bought a super long (50 ft) Ethernet cable.

If you’re worried that a 50 ft cable running through your home could look ugly, then you can use these Command Cord Clips to help with your cable management.

But if you live at home and you can’t convince your parents to let you run a super long Ethernet cable (did you try showing them this post and explain how much of a difference it would make to you?) then don’t worry because the next step is another solution to your problem of high ping.

Use a powerline adaptor if you can’t use a wired connection

Powerline adapters are devices that send data signals via your homes electrical wiring. They’re simple to use and all you need is a power outlet near to you.

In general, Powerline adapters are fast enough for high-speed internet and they are more consistent and offer less latency than a wireless connection.

But if the wiring in your house is old or not the best, then your internet speed and ping could suffer. So make sure you get your Powerline adapter from somewhere with a good return policy in case it doesn’t work out for you.

You can buy a Powerline adapter from Amazon that comes with two Ethernet cables. Connect one Ethernet cable into your adapter and router and the other into your console.

And that’s it. You now can connect to the internet via the wires and your home and, hopefully, you experience lower ping.

Get closer to your router if you use a wireless connection

If you’re stuck with using your wireless connection because you can’t use a wired connection or a Powerline adapter for whatever reason, then simply getting closer to your router can help to reduce your ping.

Because when you move closer to your router you reduce the distance that the signals have to travel, so you experience a stronger connection.

Also, you want to make sure that you have nothing blocking the wireless signal between you and your router because other appliances can hurt the strength of your connection.

Optimize your network adapter settings

For this step, we’re going to be tweaking your network adapter settings for the best performance when you play Fortnite. You will need to be connected to the internet via an Ethernet cable for this to work.

First, you want to navigate to the Network and Sharing Center of your Windows desktop. You can get there by clicking on the Start button and typing in network and.

Or you can get there via Control Panel by clicking on the Network and Internet category and then clicking on Network and Sharing Center.

If you are in icon view then you can just click on Network and Sharing Center.

Once you get to the Network and Sharing Center you’ll see your active network. Where it says Connections: you want to click the blue Ethernet text.

This will bring up your Ethernet Status and then you want to click Properties and then click Configure.

Now go to the Advanced tab and you’ll see a bunch of different properties that are available for your network adapter. The properties depend on the type of network adapter that you’re using.

Here are the settings you should use to optimize your network adapter for Fortnite:

• ARP Offload – Disabled
• ECMA – Disabled
• Energy Efficient Ethernet – Disabled
• Flow Control – Disabled
• Interrupt Moderation – Disabled
• IPv4 Checksum Offload – Disabled
• Jumbo Frame – Disabled
• Maximum Number of RSS Queues – Depends on the number of cores your CPU has. You can check this by going to Task Manager and selecting the Performance tab. Select 4 RSS Queues if your CPU has 4 or more cores. Select 2 RSS Queues if your CPU has 2 cores
• Network Address – Not Present
• NS Offload – Disabled
• Receive Buffers – 1024
• Receive Side Scaling – Enabled
• Shutdown Wake Up – Disabled
• Speed & Duplex – Select the highest Mbps available and Full Duplex. For most this will be 100 Mbps Full Duplex
• SWOI – Disabled
• TCP Checksum Offload – Disabled
• Transmit Buffers – 1024
• Wake on magic packet – Disabled
• Wake on pattern match – Disabled

For an explanation of why you should use these settings then read this.

Once you’ve made these changes you can click OK. Your internet may disconnect and reconnect to update to the new changes.

Change your DNS Server

Your DNS (Domain Name System) is an important part of your internet connection and upgrading to a better DNS server can make your connection faster, more secure, and even reduce your ping.

We are going to use Cloudflare’s DNS Servers because they are the fastest publicly available DNS Servers.

To change your DNS Server you will have to go back to the Network and Sharing Center.

On the left click Change adapter settings and open the adapter that you use and then click Properties.

From the list of connections select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click the box that says Use the following DNS server addresses and change your DNS servers to these:

• Preferred DNS server: 1.1.1.1
• Alternative DNS server: 1.0.0.1

Now you can click OK and that will change your DNS servers.

Next you want to clear the DNS Resolver Cache to speed up and optimize things for that DNS.

To do this you want to open Command Prompt, which you can do by pressing Start and typing cmd.

Type ipconfig /flushdns and hit Enter. You will see “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache”

Close Command Prompt and you’re done.

Download and run Malwarebytes Adwcleaner

Malwarebytes Adwcleaner is a free program that gets rid of adware on your computer and restores performance.

Now I know that you browse the internet safely and take good care of your computer, but there is still a chance that you could have some PUPs.

PUPs are potentially unwanted programs and could include spyware and adware. PUPs can suck up some of the resources from your computer (namely your CPU and GPU) and negatively impact your network connection.

You see, PUPs could be running in the background of your computer right now and by removing them you could get more FPS and lower ping when you play Fortnite.

I know people that have literally halved their ping from using Malwarebytes Adwcleaner, so don’t skip this step.

The program is free and all you have to do is go to the Malwarebytes website and click the free download button.

Once you’ve downloaded Malwarebytes Adwcleaner you can open it and click the scan now button.

Now it will do its thing and scan for any unwanted programs on your computer.

In my case, it actually found 2 PUPs. I take good care of my computer so I was surprised.

Once the scan has finished, you want to select the items you want to quarantine and disable. Then click the Quarantine button to move the items to Quarantine so you can permanently delete them.

Check that you’re connecting to the best matchmaking region in Fortnite

It’s possible you’re playing in a suboptimal region and that’s the reason for your high ping.

For example, if you live in New York and you’re connecting to the Oceania servers, then you’re going to be experiencing bad ping.

Fortunately, it’s really easy to change your matchmaking region in Fortnite.

Here’s what you need to do to change your matchmaking region in Fortnite:

1. Open the Fortnite menu by pressing the escape key on your keyboard or start button on your controller
2. From the dropdown list select Settings
3. Click the Cog icon to go to your Game settings
4. Choose the matchmaking region with the lowest ping for you

I have actually been connected to the wrong matchmaking region before and was experiencing ping in the high hundreds. This does not make for a good experience when playing Fortnite so it’s important that you do this step and make sure you’re using the best matchmaking region for you.

This is also why it’s a good idea to have your settings to show your ping in Fortnite so you can see when there are any abnormalities that can be as a result of using the wrong matchmaking region.

Close any background programs and websites

Before you play Fortnite you should close down other programs that may be running in the background.

These programs can use the memory of your computer so there are fewer resources for Fortnite, and they can negatively impact your connection and increase your ping.

You don’t just want to close the programs on the device that you’re using, either. Because any programs or services that are running on other devices connected to your network could affect you.

Downloading or using streaming sites like Netflix and YouTube are particularly bandwidth-heavy and can make your network performance and ping worse.

If you’re sharing your internet connection with others, you’re going to want to negotiate with them so that no heavy downloads happen when you’re gaming to get the best network performance.

Restart your network equipment

I can’t tell you how many of my technology troubles has been solved by simply turning something off and back on again.

If your network equipment (router and/or modem) has been left running for a long time without being restarted, then it’s possible that your equipment is not functioning properly.

So try turning them off and waiting a few minutes before turning them back on because this could help to improve your internet connection and lower your ping.

Are you using an old and out of date router and modem?

By replacing them for new and better equipment, it can help to improve your connection strength, speed, and lower your ping.

Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

If you’ve tried everything in this post and you’re not happy with your ping, then you can try giving your ISP a call and let them know about your problems.

Your ISP may have the solution to your problem, so it’s worth a call.

Also, it’s worth running an internet speed test because if your speeds are lower then the advertised minimum then your ISP is obliged to help you.

Upgrade your internet

If none of the steps has helped lower your ping to a satisfactory level then you may want to consider changing to a new internet service provider or upgrading your internet package.

You see, high ping can be as a result of a poor internet connection. Games like Fortnite require a certain internet speed and if it’s not met then you can experience all sorts of network problems.

Many ISPs now offer internet deals specifically for gamers that have high speed and low latency requirements.

So to improve your performance, you could upgrade your internet package.

Relocate somewhere closer to the Fortnite servers

The reason for your high ping could be because of your distance to the Fortnite servers.

You see, it takes time for the data to travel and that’s why your ping is much higher in regions that are further away from you (like my experience on the Oceania server).

So if you were to move closer to a Fortnite server then you would reduce your ping. Here’s a list of the known Fortnite server regions.

Now, this may sound extreme, but it’s actually what a few competitive players have done in order to have the best possible chance of qualifying for the Fortnite World Cup.

For most people, this isn’t feasible. But if you’re serious about being the best Fortnite player and want the lowest possible ping, then it’s something to consider.

What’s a good ping for Fortnite?

Now you’ve gone through each of the steps and you’ve hopefully reduced your ping (if you haven’t, go through each of the steps again carefully and make sure you really did each one). I thought it would be fun to create some ping benchmarks for Fortnite.

• Ideal ping is 0-30 ms – If you’re a serious and competitive Fortnite player, you want your ping to be in this region. Here your buildings and edits will be as smooth as butter and you will be able to replace the walls of most players
• Good ping is 30-60 ms – Here building and editing will still feel good. But you could have problems with particularly difficult edits or when going for wall replacements
• Playable ping is 60-100 ms – Now you could start to experience issues with your building and editing. Taking a player’s wall will be almost impossible and your walls will be taken in most cases. You may need to change your playstyle to compensate for your high ping
• Bad ping is 100+ ms – If your ping is over 100 ms then you’re at a serious disadvantage and you’ll struggle to do well competitively. Your walls will get replaced every time and you could take damage when players spray at you even when you’re holding down turbo build

Of course, these are just very general guidelines and are meant to help you understand where you are in regards to your ping.

My hope is that most Fortnite players that use a wired connection and have followed the steps in this post will be in the Ideal or Good section.

Conclusion

If you want smoother gameplay and a competitive advantage when you play Fortnite then getting your ping as low as possible is something you must do.

By using a wired connection, optimizing your network adapter settings, setting a fast DNS server, and removing potentially unwanted programs I hope your ping is now at a level that you’re happy with.

Of course, lowering your ping isn’t the only way to improve your gaming experience. Something else that causes latency is low frames per second (FPS) and here’s my guide for increasing your FPS in Fortnite.

When you increase your FPS in Fortnite in tandem with lowering your ping, it has been proven to make you a better player.

If you’ve found this post about lowering your ping in Fortnite helpful, then please consider subscribing to me on YouTube for more Fortnite content and following me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

What is your ping when you play Fortnite? Let me know in the comments below!

The post How to Lower Your Ping in Fortnite appeared first on Kr4m.

You can show your ping in-game by enabling a simple setting.

Knowing your ping is useful so I recommend that you turn it on.

But Fortnite sometimes changes the location of this setting, making it difficult to find.

Here’s what you need to do to show your Ping in Fortnite as of Chapter 2:

1. Open the Fortnite menu by pressing the escape key on your keyboard or start button on your controller
2. From the dropdown list select Settings
3. Click the Game UI icon, the third one across that looks like a box with a triangle and some lines
4. From the list of options turn Net Debug Stats On

Now your ping will be shown in the top left of your screen when you play Fortnite, next to where your player name is.

You will also see other useful network stats such as your download speed, upload speed, and packet loss. So you can track how your connection is doing while you play.

If you find that the size of the text is too large and distracting, or too small and you can’t read it properly, then you can change the size by adjusting the HUD Scale at the top of your Game UI settings until you get it just right.

In the above screenshot, you can see that my ping is 0. This means that I have no network delay so building and editing feels super smooth and responsive.

Getting your ping as low as possible is something you must do because it gives you a competitive advantage and will improve your overall experience when you play Fortnite.

Find out how to lower your ping in Fortnite now.

The post How to Show Your Ping in Fortnite Chapter 2 appeared first on Kr4m.

PSA stands for perfect sensitivity approximation.

And it can help you find a mouse sensitivity that’s right for you.

The PSA method has been used in the mouse sensitivity community for years, from old arena shooters such as Quake.

Of course, the PSA method can also be applied to Fortnite (and any shooter game, really). And it’s certainly a far better method than guessing your sensitivity or picking a random number.

In this guide, I will be explaining how you can use the PSA method the “manual” way. But the calculations involved can get a little tricky because you need to do several iterations, so it’s easy to get lost and confused.

That’s why I’ve created a free PSA method calculator using Google sheets to make things easier for you. You should open that sheet in a separate tab now.

Bear in mind the sheet is view only and you’ll need to make a copy to be able to use it. And with the sheet alone you will not know what to do next.

But when you read every word of this post, you’ll learn how to use the PSA method to find a sensitivity that feels good for you.

Note: It’s important you only use the PSA method when “cold”. In other words, when you aren’t warmed up. Otherwise, you’re just going to find the sensitivity you warmed up with.

If you’re warmed up now then I recommend you return to this guide later. Or in the morning when you have some time to complete it properly.

Finding your starting sensitivity

To begin using the PSA method, you need to get a “base” sensitivity to use for your calculations.

Now, you could use the sensitivity you currently use in Fortnite.

But I don’t recommend that.

The reason for this is that you will have some bias in favor of your current sensitivity (since you’ve probably been using it for a long time).

Instead, your base sensitivity should be one that completes a 360 degree turn in-game when you move your mouse from one end of your mouse pad to the other.

You can use the compass at the top of your screen to help ensure you’re turning the right amount.

Your base sensitivity will depend on the mouse DPI you use and the size of your mouse pad. For example, if your mouse pad is 40cm wide and you use 800 DPI, then your Fortnite sensitivity would need to be roughly 0.05 to turn a full 360 from one end to the other.

If you have a very large mouse pad (say a meter long) then just move your arm as far as you comfortably can. And if you have a tiny one then I suggest you get a larger mouse pad for playing Fortnite because you need a lot of space for moving your mouse.

Anyway, you’ll likely need to do a few adjustments to get your base sensitivity. And don’t worry if it’s not exactly right because getting close enough is fine.

Another thing I recommend for the PSA method is that you use your eDPI (effective dots per inch) instead of your actual Fortnite sensitivity. You can calculate your eDPI using my online calculator.

The reason for using eDPI is because your Fortnite sensitivity is likely very low (say 0.05). And this can create rounding problems when using the PSA method.

Of course, you could calculate your eDPI manually by multiplying your Fortnite sensitivity by your mouse DPI. So, using the previous example of 800 DPI and 0.05 Fortnite sensitivity, the eDPI would be 40.

Now that you have your base sensitivity in terms of eDPI, you can start using the PSA method.

The first iteration

For the first part of the PSA method, you’re going to take your “base” sensitivity and multiply it by 0.5 and by 1.5.

This will give you two new values. An upper value and lower value.

By the way, you’re going to be doing several iterations. So you may want to get a piece of paper and a calculator for this or open my PSA method calculator in Google sheets to make it easier.

Continuing with the previous example of 40, you would have values of 20 (lower) and 60 (upper).

Now you’re going to test your sensitivity at the lower and upper value and see which one feels best for you.

But how should you test your sensitivity?

Well, you have some options:

• Tracking a stationary target – Spawn a bot and then move around while trying to keep your crosshairs on the target at all times. Do this at different distances (close, medium, and far).
• Do a run of an aiming course – There are many aim courses in Fortnite creative mode you can try. Just make sure you do the same course each time you test.
• Start building – You can either free build in your own creative map or follow a course specifically designed for building and editing. The choice is yours.

Because building, aiming and editing are all very important parts of Fortnite, it could be worth you spending time testing each of them in isolation.

You only want to spend a few minutes in the testing phase (otherwise the whole PSA method could take a long time). So set a timer on your phone and test each sensitivity for the same amount of time.

Try your best to eliminate any bias when testing as well. In other words, have an open mind and don’t go in with the assumption that you’re going to prefer one value over the other.

After you’ve run your tests, you should be able to feel which sensitivity is better for you. The upper or lower value.

Let’s say you preferred the lower value. What do you do next?

Well, the second iteration, of course.

The second iteration

Say you prefer the lower value. In our example, this would mean you prefer an eDPI of 20 over 60.

Then, for the second iteration in the PSA method, you would add your preferred value (20) to your base value (40) and then divide by 2.

20+40 is 60.

60 divided by 2 is 30.

Easy math.

Next, take this new value (30) and do as you did before. That is, multiply it by 0.5 and 1.5 to get a new lower and upper value for testing.

In our example, you would get 15 and 45.

You see, it’s quite confusing when you try to do it manually, and that’s why I recommend you use my spreadsheet.

So with these new values, you’re going to run the same tests as you did before and see which you prefer. Now the sensitivities you’re testing here could actually feel worse than the previous values you tried.

That’s ok. Don’t panic.

Because through using the PSA method and further iterations, you’re going to eventually converge to the sensitivity that’s right for you.

So continue onward and trust that everything is going to work out just fine.

The third iteration

Now let’s say in the second iteration you preferred the higher value (45).

You would then add this to your base value from the second iteration (30) to get 75.

Can you guess what to do next?

If you said multiply this new value (75) by 0.5 and 1.5, you would be wrong.

Actually, for the third iteration you’re going to multiply by 0.6 and 1.4.

You see, we’re eventually going to be converging to 1.

So you would have 22.5 and 52.5 as your new upper and lower values.

Then you go and do your tests again to see which value you prefer.

The fourth iteration and beyond

I’m sure by now you’re beginning to get a feel of what you’re supposed to be doing.

Take your preferred value (upper or lower) and add it to the base value from the previous iteration. Then, multiply this number to get new upper and lower values.

So I no longer feel I have to walk you through each step of the PSA method.

You’re free.

But you do need to know what values to multiply for each of the following iterations.

Here are the values you will need to multiply by:

• Iteration 4: Multiply by 0.7 and 1.3
• Iteration 5: Multiply by 0.8 and 1.2
• Iteration 6: Multiply by 0.9 and 1.1
• Iteration 7: Multiply by 0.95 and 1.05

After the 7th iteration, you will have found your “perfect sensitivity” according to the PSA method.

If you’re using my PSA method calculator, you would end up with something that looks like this:

Well done. I know that was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Right?

Conclusion

Finding the perfect sensitivity takes time and effort.

Imagine you spent your entire time playing Fortnite with the same sensitivity (as a lot of players do). How would you know there isn’t a better sensitivity for you?

You see, using something like the PSA method can help make the process of finding a good sensitivity easier because it forces you to try new sensitivities.

And through your sense of feel, you will begin to naturally converge to a sensitivity that feels good to you.

With your new sensitivity, you can start using these ways to improve your Fortnite aim.

You may have noticed I didn’t say to use Kovaak’s FPS Aim Trainer when testing your sensitivity. This is because you get a score when playing Kovaak’s.

And I didn’t want this score to influence your decision. Instead, you were supposed to go based on your feelings.

If you want to play Kovaak’s now using the sensitivity you found using the PSA method, go ahead. I think it’s the best aim trainer available and will be excellent for you.

Of course, you may still be unsure if the sensitivity (eDPI) you are using is any good for Fortnite. So I’ve analyzed hundreds of pro players and created the ultimate guide to Fortnite sensitivity for you to read next.

Anyway, I hope you’ve found this guide to the PSA method helpful. You can subscribe to Kr4m on YouTube for more Fortnite content or follow me on Twitter for the latest updates.

Leave a comment down below with the sensitivity you found when using the PSA method. Or let me know if you have any questions and I will respond to you.

The post How to Use the PSA Method to Fine-Tune Your Fortnite Sensitivity appeared first on Kr4m.

Now you only have two shotgun choices: the pump shotgun or the tactical.

But which one should you use?

In this post, we’re going to compare these two shotguns at different rarities. And looking at how the damage trends over different distances.

Then we can create a tier list, so you’ll always know which shotgun to use when you play Fortnite.

Pump vs tactical differences

Before getting into the more detailed comparison, let’s first take a look at the general differences between these shotguns. Starting with the pump shotgun.

As you know, the pump shotgun is more like a “burst” weapon. In other words, it does a high amount of damage but it has a low fire rate.

Because the pump has a low fire rate, you’ll want to carry a submachine gun as part of your loadout (or another weapon with good sustained damage). So you can switch weapons to finish enemies off after landing a shot with the pump.

On the other hand, the tactical shotgun generally does less damage per shot but makes up for that with a higher fire rate. In other words, the tactical shotgun does more damage per second (DPS).

The benefit the tactical shotgun has is that you don’t necessarily need to carry a submachine gun in your inventory. Because it does good sustained damage itself you won’t need to switch weapons.

As a result, you can carry a different and potentially more useful item in your inventory instead. You only have 5 inventory slots, so this is actually important.

Score 1 for the tactical shotgun.

Another thing to bear in mind is the magazine size (the number of bullets you can hold in the gun) for each shotgun. The pump shotgun has a magazine size of 5 whereas the tactical shotgun has a clip size of 8, regardless of rarity.

Score 2 for the tactical shotgun.

The final thing to note is the headshot multiplier for each shotgun.

The tactical shotgun has a headshot multiplier of x2.25. And the pump shotgun has a headshot multiplier of x2.

Score 3 for the tactical shotgun.

But how do they compare in the head-to-head?

Common shotgun comparison

It makes sense to compare the shotguns in increasing rarities, don’t you agree?

So let’s start with the common (grey) pump and tactical shotgun.

Since these are the shotguns you’re going to encounter most frequently when you play Fortnite (as they are common weapons) this is really important.

Listen up, the damage of a common tactical shotgun is higher than a pump shotgun.

Therefore, you should choose the common tactical shotgun over the pump every time because the common pump is the worst shotgun in the game.

Reddit user bergovgg did an interesting comparison of the Fortnite shotguns, looking at the damage over different distances measured in tiles.

I put his data into a spreadsheet and created graphs. So you can see how the damage of each shotgun trends over different distances.

For simplicity, I’ve only graphed the damage of a body shot. Take a look at this graph now:

As you can see, the tactical shotgun does more damage than the pump at all distances.

And because it has a higher headshot multiplier, it’s always going to do more damage.

Uncommon shotgun comparison

Now let’s see how the two shotguns compare at the uncommon (green) rarities:

This time the pump shotgun does more damage than the tactical shotgun, but only 6% more.

And at this damage threshold, you’re not going to 1 shot an enemy with full health and shields with a pump shotgun. Even if you hit all the shells to their head.

Let’s look at the graph, to see how the damage trends over different distances:

As you’d expect, the pump shotgun does more damage at the close distances.

But as you move further away from your enemy, the damage of the tactical starts to get better.

Because the tactical shotgun has a higher headshot multiplier I recommend you choose the uncommon tactical over the pump.

Rare shotgun comparison

Things start getting more interesting at the rare (blue) rarity.

(Rare rarity, does that even make sense?)

You see the damage of the pump shotgun is now starting to get ahead of the tactical. But it’s still not enough to one-shot an enemy with full health and shields.

Now take a look at the graph:

This time, the choice isn’t so clear cut.

But I’m going to award the tactical shotgun as the winner at the rare (blue) rarity.

I don’t think the damage increase of the pump (13%) is enough to make it the best choice.

At least not yet.

Epic shotgun comparison

At Epic and Legendary rarities, the tactical and pump shotguns get a new look. The tactical resembles the Benelli M4 and the pump shotgun appears to be a Franchi SPAS-12.

This is why you’ll commonly hear players refer to Epic and Legendary pump shotguns as a SPAS.

And in regards to the stats, things start to get more interesting, too.

Now the pump shotgun does 20% more damage per shot than the tactical. And the damage is enough to one-shot an enemy with full health and shields.

And what about the damage over time?

As you can see, the damage gap between the pump and tactical at close distances is starting to grow in favor of the pump.

But the tactical still does very well at distances further away, with a more flat damage falloff.

Still, the pump beats the tactical at Epic rarity because the damage is high enough to one-shot full health and shield enemies.

Legendary shotgun comparison

And finally, it’s this the battle of the two highest rarity versions of the shotguns.

Here the damage of the pump shotgun really starts to pull ahead, doing more than 25% more than the tactical.

At this level, even a body shot from either shotgun is enough to do devastating damage.

Let’s take a look at the last graph to get the full picture of how the damage trends over different distances:

Now the pump shotgun is starting to look better, even at further away distances.

Therefore, at legendary rarity, the pump shotgun beats the tactical.

Shotgun tier list

Now we’ve had a good look at each shotgun at each rarity. And had a chance to compare the damage over different distances.

It’s time to construct the shotgun tier list for Fortnite Chapter 2.

This list will start from the best shotgun, all the way down to the worst:

1. Legendary pump
2. Legendary tactical
3. Epic pump
4. Epic tactical
5. Rare tactical
6. Rare pump
7. Uncommon tactical
8. Uncommon pump
9. Common tactical
10. Common pump

In other words, the tactical shotgun is better at the lower rarities (Common, Uncommon and Rare) and the pump shotgun is better at the higher rarities (Epic and Legendary).

Of course, you could have a particular preference for one shotgun over the other. So you may choose not to strictly follow this tier list.

For example, some players will prefer the tactical because they don’t want to change weapons to finish off enemies.

But, this list should serve as a good guide, and I think it will be about right for most players.

Conclusion

Shotguns are arguably the most important weapon in Fortnite because of how often fights will go to close-quarters combat as a result of using building to close the gap.

In other words, you’re always going to want to have a shotgun in your inventory.

And I hope from reading this post, you now have a better understanding of which shotgun to choose at each rarity. So you can optimize your loadout and win more games.

I’m really happy Fortnite has reduced the number of weapons in general, and the shotguns in particular.

You see, in Season X we had 4 shotguns to choose from. The drum, the combat, the pump, and the tactical. At one point there was also the heavy shotgun.

Fortnite does not need that many shotguns. It makes the game needlessly complicated.

So now we are left with the two original shotguns with very clear use cases. The tactical has a faster fire rate and a higher DPS. And the pump has higher burst damage and one-shot potential.

Of course, the best shotgun depends on the rarity, as you now know

Thank you for reading this post and I hope you’ve found it helpful. Please subscribe to Kr4m on YouTube for more Fortnite content and follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

The post What is the Best Shotgun in Fortnite Chapter 2? appeared first on Kr4m.

And we have a new LTM mode: Storm King.

Your goal is to defeat the Storm King by shooting at his weak points when they appear.

Once you’ve taken out some of his weak points, you will then have to take out his horns. You will unlock a new medal in your punchcard when you destroy the first Storm Horn.

And after destroying the first Storm Horn, you will go through some more waves. Then you’ll take out his second horn (and upgrade your medal).

Finally, the Storm King will be glowing yellow, and this is where you can damage him at any point. And when his hitpoints hit 0 he will be defeated and you will have won.

Sound easy enough?

Well, this game mode is a lot harder than you would think. The first game I won lasted about 17 minutes.

It took me a few attempts before I could figure out a reliable method for winning in this game mode.

And I know a lot of players are struggling, too.

So in this post, I want to share with you some useful information I wish I knew before I started playing. To help you get the Nitemare Royale a little easier and unlock the new Storm Sail umbrella.

Avoid the beam attack

The most dangerous attack the Storm King has a beam he fires in a line. It’s like a laser that does a ton of damage and can even shoot through your builds.

This is the number one way players die in this game mode.

You will be able to see when the Storm King starts to charge his laser. Then you’ll know roughly what direction it is going and it’s time for you to get out of the way, fast.

You’ll notice a number of storm vents on the island that you can use to move around quickly. So make sure you’re positioned near one. These saved my life more times than you would think.

It is actually possible to survive the beam attack even if you get hit. But you’re going to need to be at full health.

So make sure you look for shields and top up with medkits throughout the game.

Because, even if you’re paying attention, you’re eventually gonna get hit by one of the beams.

The beam, however, is not the only attack the Storm King has at his disposal. Here are a few other tricks he has, and some ways you can survive them.

• The spin – This isn’t a dangerous attack, but it will destroy any player-built structures. So make sure you’re not built too high when you see this coming
• Falling rocks – Later in the game mode, the Storm King will start to summon large rocks that fall from the sky. You can avoid damage from this by building floors above you

Of course, these aren’t the official names. But they’re the best I could make up with.

Revive your teammates

Storm King is an LTM you play with squads. And I recommend you select “fill” when you’re queuing up, even if you generally dislike playing with other players.

Hint: You can turn off voice chat in your sound settings if you don’t want to hear or communicate with your team.

But it is worth playing with some friends if you have some online, so you can communicate with them.

Even if you’re going to battle the Storm King without friends, you’re going to have to revive your team. Because you’re not going to defeat Him alone.

You see, the more players there are, the more damage you can do to the Storm King when his weak points appear. And more players will help take care of a lot of the zombies.

Remember, in Fortnite Chapter 2, you can pick up downed teammates and throw them to safety. This is especially helpful if one of your teammates has got blown into the storm because you can throw them back and revive them.

You can also carry your teammates to a storm vent to get them further away from any danger.

I was actually surprised by how players would immediately run to my aid when I got downed. I thought I would be left for dead because I couldn’t communicate with anyone else.

But it looks like the players in this game mode have a good understanding of what you need to be doing to win.

And to really drive home the point of how important your teammates are: I won my first game of Storm King because of my team as I died earlier in the game.

Make use of every item

In the Storm King LTM you’ll notice items are back that wouldn’t be in the normal game mode. Because the loot pool in Fortnite Chapter 2 has been reduced significantly.

So you’ll see healing items like Slurp Juices (heal you for 75 effective health over time) and Chug Splashes (throw them at yourself to get health/shield, you can also use them on your teammates).

And also traps like campfires (place them on the ground to gain health over time) and the mounted turret.

The mounted turret is actually pretty good for this game mode because it does 40 damage for every shot, and it doesn’t use ammo. You’ll want to make sure the structure you’ve built for it is strong enough so the zombies don’t knock you down, though.

And you’ll also want to wait until after the Storm King’s “spin attack” because it will destroy all structures (including your turret).

Another thing to bear in mind is that you’re completely stationary when using the turret. So setting it up near a bounce pad is a good idea so you can escape a beam attack when it’s aiming for you.

Don’t underestimate the zombies

As you know, your goal is to defeat the Storm King by damaging his weak points when they appear. And you should be trying to attack the weak points whenever you can.

But often you won’t be in the optimal position to be able to hit the weak points. And that’s ok because you can still make good use of your time by taking care of the zombies.

The Storm King will start to summon spawn crystals for the zombies, and I recommend you attack these instead of the zombies.

You see, destroying the spawn crystals will stop the zombies from spawning. And when you destroy the spawn crystals, you’ll get a lot of great loot.

Of course, the zombies themselves can drop a lot of useful things such as ammo. And it may be useful to turn on “auto pick up items” in your Fortnite settings so you don’t have to manually pick them up (and risk accidentally swapping out a weapon and spoiling the layout of your inventory).

But as you don’t gain any health or shield from killing zombies (like in the Battle Royale mode) you don’t want to spend too much time farming zombies when you could be doing more useful things to help your team.

Is the Storm King LTM worth playing?

You can earn a surprising amount of XP from playing the Storm King mode. Comparable to playing the usual Battle Royale mode.

You see, the XP you get for killing zombies and the medals you earn from destroying the Storm Horn really start to add up. And this XP is helpful for getting your Battle Pass to Tier 100.

But to earn the XP from the other Fortnitemares challenges, you’re going to have to play the Battle Royale mode. Because they aren’t unlockable in the Storm King LTM.

This guide by Erik Kain at Forbes will help you complete the “Search a chest in a haunted forest, a ghost town, and a spooky farm” challenge.

But the real reason for playing the Storm King mode is for unlocking the new Storm Sail umbrella.

I think it looks awesome with my Dream skin and Glpyhs contrail. What do you think?

You also unlock the King’s Wrath spray and a new banner that I don’t care too much for.

Did I enjoy the Storm King mode?

No, not really.

And not because it was a bad game mode.

But I just don’t really like PvE (Player vs Environment) hoard type game modes.

Plus, I wasn’t playing with any friends, so maybe that was a factor.

I play Fortnite because it’s a PvP (Player vs Player) Battle Royale game with building.

And I’ve never been a fan of zombies in Fortnite, either.

However, the new way they’ve implemented them this year in the Battle Royale mode is quite interesting. They jump out randomly from houses and it’s actually quite scary.

I thought Fortnite was supposed to be a kid’s game?

Anyway, I’m rambling. And that’s because I’ve already exhausted all of the knowledge I have about the Storm King mode.

I hope you’ve found this guide helpful. Please subscribe to Kr4m on YouTube for more Fortnite content and follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

The post How to Defeat the Storm King in Fortnite appeared first on Kr4m.

You can go fishing and get useful items for healing.

And you can also swim.

It’s super simple to swim. All you need to do is get in the water and start moving forward using your W-Key or analog stick.

But did you know you can swim much faster than running?

You see, with the huge reduction in the item pool in Chapter 2, you have much fewer mobility items available to use. There are no launch pads and boats are the only vehicle.

So anything that can improve your mobility to outrun the storm is going to be helpful. And could help you win more games.

How to swim faster

The thing affects your swimming speed the most is the direction the water is moving.

You see, there are 3 different types of water:

1. Still water (not moving)
2. Downstream (with the current)
3. Upstream (against the current)

You want to swim downstream when possible because it’s the fastest. And avoid swimming upstream because it’s the slowest.

In the below picture I’ve used arrows to indicate the direction of the stream. But because it’s a photo you can’t actually see the water moving.

Obviously, when you’re playing Fortnite, it will be clear to you which direction the water is moving.

Not all streams are equal, either. In other words, some will be moving faster than others.

So now you know swimming downstream is faster, let me explain a technique that will allow you to boost your speed.

The dolphin dive technique

When you’re swimming you can use the jump key and your character will leap out of the water and dive back in, like a dolphin.

You can continually press your jump key to keep dolphin diving over and over again. Because there is no fatigue on this, as is the case with jump fatigue.

Anyway, it shouldn’t take you too long until you get the rhythm for this.

The interesting thing is that dolphin diving allows you to move through water much faster than you would when swimming normally.

An additional benefit of the dolphin dive technique is that you’ll be a lot harder to hit.

You see, your character will be in an awkward position, and you’ll be diving in and out of the water. So you will be very difficult to track.

How much faster is swimming than running?

Swimming in still water is almost the exact same speed as running.

But in the headline of this post, I said swimming was 212% faster than running. In other words, you can swim more than twice as fast as you can run.

Of course, this is only possible when you’re swimming downstream and using the dolphin dive technique.

The data for this is thanks to 1UpAnalytics and you can see the full infographic and speed statistics below:

Of course, swimming upstream is much slower than running.

But, when you use the dolphin diving technique we’ve already discussed, you can actually swim almost as fast upstream as you can when running.

Which should be useful if you’re ever forced to swim upstream.

Can you build underwater?

There will come times where you will be swimming to get away from enemies.

And they won’t stop shooting at you.

Fortunately, you can protect yourself by building in the water.

Sometimes the water is too deep and it’s not possible. But it’s always worth trying because you could avoid any unnecessary damage.

Once you’ve managed to place a wall, you can connect a floor and begin to start fighting again.

Or continue swimming away to safety. It’s your choice.

Conclusion

I really like that Fortnite has made water a more interactive element in this latest season. Fishing is a lot of fun, too.

You can even dive into deep water from a great height and avoid taking fall damage. This was shown in the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 1 Battle Pass Trailer at the new Gorgeous Groves location (E5 on your map).

Just be careful you don’t miss the water entirely, though. Or you’ll end up splattering on the ground.

Anyway, I hope you’ve found this guide helpful and you’re now ready to use your new swimming skills to outrun the storm and win more games.

If you’ve enjoyed this post then please subscribe to Kr4m on YouTube for more Fortnite content and follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

The post How to Swim 212% Faster Than Running in Fortnite Chapter 2 appeared first on Kr4m.

But you have to figure it out yourself because there are no official patch notes.

Anyway, one of the new features is the ability to upgrade your weapon using some material at a weapon upgrade bench.

Where are the upgrade benches?

You can find a weapon upgrade bench at every named location, as well as some unnamed locations. Currently, there are over 20 weapon upgrade benches available for you to use.

In the below picture I’ve marked roughly where you can find each upgrade bench with a red circle:

It’s worth noting that weapon upgrade benches do not spawn 100% of the time. In other words, you may not find one at a location I have marked because it simply hasn’t spawned in your game.

It’s possible that upgrading your weapon is going to be a challenge you need to complete to earn some XP to level up your Battle Pass. So it’s worth familiarizing yourself with the upgrade bench locations now for that reason.

How much material do you need to upgrade your weapon?

The amount of material needed to upgrade your weapon depends on the rarity you’re trying to upgrade from.

Here are the exact numbers for each upgrade tier:

• Common to Uncommon – 50 wood, stone, and metal
• Uncommon to Rare – 150 wood, stone, and metal
• Rare to Epic – 250 wood, stone, and metal
• Epic to Legendary – 350 wood, stone, and metal

It takes about 5 seconds for the upgrade bench to forge your new weapon.

Obviously, you can only upgrade your weapon from one tier to the next each time you use the bench. For example, Uncommon to Rare.

But you can use the upgrade bench multiple times. So it’s possible to get your weapon from Uncommon to Legendary using them. Of course, that would cost a lot of material.

Also, you can’t upgrade Legendary weapons because they’re already at the max tier.

And you can only upgrade your weapons. For a full list of the weapons and loot pool in Fortnite Chapter 2, read this post.

In other words, your healing items, grenades, fishing rod, and traps cannot be used on an upgrade bench.

Are the weapon upgrades worth it?

Because Uncommon weapons are the worst tier and require the least amount of material (50) to upgrade to the Common tier, I think it is worth it.

But as you go higher up in weapon rarity then the amount you gain in weapon power may not be worth the material you lose as a result. As you know, material is one of the most important things in Fortnite because you need it to build and protect yourself.

Of course, whether or not it is worth upgrading your weapon depends on the amount of total material you have, too.

For example, if you only have 200 of each material then it’s probably not going to be worth using 150 of each to upgrade from an Uncommon to a Rare weapon.

But if you’re lucky enough to have 999 of each material, then it’s an entirely different story. And it’s probably worth upgrading your weapon from any tier.

Conclusion

The ability to upgrade your weapon using material is an interesting mechanic that Fortnite has added in Chapter 2.

And it allows for players to get to the ideal loadout in a new way. New to Fortnite, at least.

You see, the ability to upgrade your weapon was already possible in a different Battle Royale game: Realm Royale.

And I expect it was the pressure Fortnite had from those particular players that may have been a factor in why we have upgrade benches now.

Anyway, I hope you’ve found this guide useful. You can subscribe to me on YouTube for more Fortnite content and follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

P.S. If I’ve missed any of the upgrade bench locations let me know in the comments so I can update the image of the map. Cheers

The post How to Upgrade Your Weapons in Fortnite Chapter 2 appeared first on Kr4m.

And you can catch different fish to heal with and even find weapons.

But to start with, you’re going to need a fishing rod.

Fishing rods are an uncommon item and take up a slot in your inventory. They won’t break and you can find one as floor loot, from searching chests, or by searching barrels.

To cast your fishing rod you just need to press whatever button you would use to shoot your weapon. So for PC players (like me), you’d use your left mouse button. And console players would use the right trigger.

When your rod is out, you’ll want to wait a few seconds before reeling it back in. I’ve gotten a 100% success rate of catching an item by waiting for 2 splashes first.

You can reel your rod back in by pressing the same button you used to cast it. You can catch fish, weapons, ammo, material and a tin can.

Feel free to move around while your rod is cast out as well so you’re less likely to get hit.

Where to go fishing

Obviously you can only go fishing in the water.

And water is a big part of this new season with the new swimming mechanic as well as boats.

Anyway, you’ll notice some areas of water there’ll be a sort of “whirlpool” area (pictured below) and you’ll even be able to see the fish swimming underneath.

This is the best place to go fishing because you’ll be able to catch the best (uncommon and rare) fish, which I’ll explain in a moment. You also have the chance of catching a good weapon when fishing in these areas.

You can actually go fishing in any part of the water, you just won’t get the best fish or weapons. Instead, you’ll just get the common fish, a tin can you can throw at enemies (not recommended), some ammo, and a little bit of material for building.

In other words, you want to stick to fishing at the whirlpool whenever you can.

But you can only catch so many fish at the whirlpool before it expires and then you’ll need to find a new area.

The types of fish in Fortnite

As of right now, there are 3 different types of fish you can catch.

But there are leaks of a Mythic Goldfish and you can expect it to be added to Fortnite later in the season and likely a challenge and some XP to go with it.

New Leaked Mythic Goldfish!
– Fish it & throw it at enemies to deal 90 Damage! pic.twitter.com/IkGvc7tZXO

— HYPEX – Fortnite Leaks & News (@HYPEX) October 16, 2019

When you catch a fish you can place them into your inventory as you would with any other item. In other words, they aren’t instantly consumed like an apple or coconut and so on.

Here is some useful information about the 3 fish you can catch in Fortnite:

• Small fry – a common fish that heals 25 health up to a maximum of 75 (like bandages). You can carry up to 6 Small Frys.
• Flopper – an uncommon fish that heals 50 health. You can carry up to 4 Floppers.
• Slurpfish – an epic fish that heals 50 effective health or shield. So if you consumed a Slurpfish with 75 health and 0 shield you would go up to 100 health and 25 shield. You can carry up to 3 Slurpfish.

Also, all fish take 1 second to consume, so they’re a reliable way to heal up when you don’t have any traditional healing items.

Other uses for the fishing rod

Of course, the main use of your rod is to catch fish.

But did you know you can actually use it on other players?

Yes, you can cast your rod at other players to move them around and even yoink them from high ground.

Check out this hilarious Reddit post with over 6,000 upvotes showing a player rescuing his teammate from a sniper bullet by using the fishing rod.

Mostly this feature seems to be for the memes and it isn’t the most practical use. It’s still a fun mechanic, though.

Advanced fishing techniques

There is a lack of mobility items because of a reduction in the Fortnite loot pool in Chapter 2. Therefore, you could find yourself stuck in the storm.

But you can survive for a surprisingly long time if you’re near water and have a fishing rod by healing from your catches.

Also, if you have a boat, you can get yourself out of seemingly impossible situations with some trickery and good timing.

Here’s what to do if you find yourself in that situation:

1. Cast your rod and catch some fish
2. Start driving the boat so it has some forward momentum
3. Switch seats so you can heal while moving forward
4. Repeat until you’re safe from the storm

Of course, if you’re playing in Duo or Squad mode, you can coordinate between one player healing and one player driving. So you can cover the most amount of distance while you both heal when needed.

Another thing you can do if you plan on spending a long time fishing somewhere like Craggy Cliffs is to build a small base with a window so you’re less likely to get killed.

Then all you need to do is cast your rod from the window and reel it back in after 2 splashes. You’ll collect whatever you catch in your base, too.

Conclusion

Fishing is a cool new mechanic that’s introduced interesting new ways for players to heal and survive.

You know, fishing actually reminds me of an MMORPG game I used to play call RuneScape. Even more so because you earn XP when fishing, so you can level up your Battle Pass.

Anyway, the fish you can catch are really strong healing items. Especially when you consider there aren’t as many healing items available in Fortnite Chapter 2 right now.

Of course, remember to keep yourself safe when fishing, so you aren’t an easy kill.

What do you think of fishing in Fortnite?

The post An In-Depth Guide to Fishing in Fortnite Chapter 2 appeared first on Kr4m.